Plowman goes beast-mode in Cardinals’ win over Eagles

A career night from Cole Plowman led the Newton boys basketball team to its fourth straight win on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals started fast, withstood a second-quarter run from Pella Christian and Plowman’s big second half pushed the hosts to a 50-42 home win over the Eagles during Little Hawkeye Conference action.

The best game of Plowman’s varsity career featured a career-high 23 points, a career-best 14 rebounds, two assists and a season-best five blocks.

“He was an absolute beast tonight at both ends of the floor,” Newton head boys basketball coach Jason Carter said. “He was a rebounding machine and had a lot of blocks. He was a difference-maker and single-handedly carried us. I’m really proud of how he played.”

Plowman’s effort came on a night when the Cardinals did not have second-leading scorer Jake Ingle. The senior point guard injured his leg in a scrimmage three days earlier.

The Cardinals have won four straight games since starting 0-2. They improved to 3-1 in conference play.

“We struggled to get the ball up the floor early without him,” Plowman said about not having Ingle in the lineup. “I think we did well in our half-court offense, but we turned it over too much. Jake brings the ball up the floor the most, but once we figured that out, I think we did fine.”

Newton (4-2) led 13-3 after one quarter. Carson Satterfield scored all six of his points in the frame and the Cardinals ended the period on a 12-0 run.

Pella Christian used a 12-2 spurt to get back into the game. The two teams were tied 15- and 19-all before a Drew Thompson 3-point heave went in at the buzzer.

Newton led 22-19 at the break despite the Eagles outscoring the home team 16-9 in the second.

“It seems to be our ammo right now. We’ve been coming out hot offensively and really defensively, too,” Carter said. “Then we kind of level off. That’s why it’s important to get off to good starts, and we’ve done a really good job with that this year. Now we need to do a better job of keeping our composure when we level off.”

The second half belonged to Plowman. He was the only Cardinal to reach double-figures in the game and 15 of his 23 came in the final two frames.

He scored half of Newton’s points during a 10-0 run that put the Cardinals in front 34-24 in the third. Pella Christian (4-3 overall, 2-2 in the LHC) ended the frame with six in a row.

Brody Bauer’s 3-pointer pushed the margin back to eight early in the fourth and then Plowman scored the next seven Newton points. His triple from the corner extended the margin to 45-38 with 2:20 to play.

“I have been working on trying to extend my range more so I can be more of a threat,” Plowman said. “That 3 felt good off my hand. I hadn’t hit one in a game in a while.”

Two of Plowman’s five blocks came in the final 1:30 and Newton made 5-of-6 from the free-throw line in the final 1:45 to keep the Eagles at arm’s length.

Bauer finished with eight points, four rebounds and four assists and Tade Vanderlaan added six points, five rebounds and two blocks. He was 3-of-4 from the charity stripe in the final 49 seconds.

Satterfield chipped in three assists in his first start of the year and Thompson collected five points and two boards.

“We had guys playing in different spots with Jake off the floor,” Carter said. “We didn’t have a lot of practice time without him to put people in those spots.

“I don’t think the pressure needs to be on any one specific person. I think we have plenty of guys who can step up and score points in bunches. It becomes more important to share the ball and work together as a unit. We have plenty of guys who can make shots.”

Newton shot 40.5 percent from the floor, made 6-of-22 from 3 and hit 10-of-15 from the line.

The Cardinals, who went just seven deep, turned the ball over 14 times but every starter connected on at least one trey.

“We knew we had to be ready for changing defenses. We knew they ran a lot of different things,” Carter said. “We figured he would throw a lot of things at us until something stuck, and we struggled with the half-court pressure. We eventually started to figure it out and stopped turning the thing over.”

Pella Christian’s Tysen De Vries came into the game averaging a team-best 14.8 points per game. He scored the Eagles’ first eight and then put in six in the third to finish with 14 for the game.

Nate Lampe got extended playing time as a backup point guard and was the primary defender against De Vries in the second half. He also hit a pair of free throws in the closing minutes.

“We knew we were going to need him,” Carter said about Lampe. “He went in with no fear and even took the ball away from (De Vries) a few times. Those were huge possessions in the fourth. He stepped up big.

“Their offense revolves around (De Vries). I thought we did a good job rotating and covering him up when he did get downhill. Cole did a really good job of rotating and helping when he got to the rim, too.”

Notes: Pella Christian is 25-7 against Newton since 2007 but is just 11-7 against the Cardinals since January of 2014. The Eagles swept Newton last year, and the Cardinals have never won more than two straight games against them. … Ingle sported a big knee brace on Tuesday but is considered day-to-day. “We just don’t know yet, but we are going to take it easy for a bit,” Carter said.